Billy Joe Saunders will join Tyson Fury's training camp as Fury gets ready for his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk.
Fury's preparing to face Usyk again in December after losing to him in May. It was Fury's first professional loss, coming by split decision. The fight didn't go Fury's way, with complacency being a big issue. In the ninth round, Usyk caught Fury with a big shot that sent him to the ropes, resulting in a ten count.
Now, as Fury looks to reclaim three of the four major world titles, he's bringing in his old friend Saunders to help out. Saunders shared some thoughts about the upcoming fight with talkSPORT.
"I'm not making any excuses for him, but I know what went on in camp and what didn't go on in camp. I know that, even when it came to sparring and other bits and bobs, there was stuff missing out of it that needs to be rectified this time."
Saunders thinks something was off with Fury's sparring preparations last time. He also pointed out an interesting mental quirk of Fury's:
"If he's getting his own way early on, he tends to switch off. If he gets knocked out cold on the floor and people don't think he's getting up and he gets up, that's when he switches his gears up."
Despite the challenges in the first fight, Saunders gave Fury credit for his resilience:
"You've got to give him credit. I know there's a lot of speculation about the ninth round, but he didn't go down and he was still on his feet fighting."
Looking ahead to the rematch, Saunders believes Tyson will win by knockout.
The winner of Fury vs Usyk could be in for a big unification fight. Anthony Joshua might be next in line if he beats Daniel Dubois on September 21 at Wembley Stadium. That fight's for the IBF world heavyweight title, so the heavyweight division could see all the belts unified soon.
